It’s not uncommon to see the government drag its heels for years on legislation that many would consider commonsensical and could even save lives. It is unusual, however, to see this happen when the only thing standing in the way of the law are women’s hairdos.
Last month, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi cleared a transport department proposal to make it mandatory for women on two-wheelers to wear helmets. The department has now written to the Election Commission asking if it can notify the changes to the law right away. If things go right, the changes might finally happen this week — but that’s a big if.
“We have been pushing this for so long, that I won’t believe it till I see it,” said filmmaker Ulhas PR, who has been at the forefront of the effort to amend the law. “If you look at all the newspaper clippings over the last couple of years, you will see I keep saying that we expect something to happen this week. So now I’m just going to wait until it happens, but I am optimistic.”
Two years ago, when Ulhas filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court, the government — then run by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit — said it would make the requisite changes to the laws. But the next day, Dikshit put the brakes on the move.
Since then, the government has dithered, sometimes appearing to finally take the plunge and at other times asking the court for more time. Meanwhile, lives have literally been lost because of the inaction.
According to to Delhi Traffic Police, 63 women were killed on the capital’s roads last year because they weren’t wearing helmets. The Indian Head Injury Foundation’s data found that 76% of the victims classified as “severely injured” in India in 2013 suffered from head injuries.
The fatalities and injuries are even more jarring because there is very little real opposition to the move other than inconvenience and messy hair. A quick on-the-streets survey done by the Times of India found as much, with women mostly complaining about helmets not fitting or the way they look.
The one exception in this case is the Sikh community. Former CM Dikshit used to explain her decision not to amend the rule as a way of respecting the “sentiments of a religious community”, by which she means Sikhs. As soon as the Lieutenant Governor cleared the transport department’s proposal to amend the rules, the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Managing Committee wrote a letter asking him not to pass the order. But the current rules already provide an exemption to Sikh men wearing a turban, and it would be easy to add in similar language so that Amritdhari Sikh women, who also wear turbans, aren’t required to wear helmets.
“They count for barely 10% of the women on the roads, at the highest estimate,” Ulhas said. “And we have no problem with leaving them exempt, just as Sikh men are given leeway. Why endanger the rest?”
Ulhas likes to compare the situation to the case of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman who died of organ failure after Ireland’s orthodox Catholic laws didn’t allow her to get an abortion that might have saved her.
“On the same day that Savita died, a woman named Nita died in Delhi because she wasn’t wearing a helmet,” Ulhas said. “Within a year in Ireland, they had changed the law, despite the religious sentiments there. Here, where we are even saying give an exemption to the Sikhs, we still haven’t changed things.”
If the notification finally comes through, simply having changed the law won’t be enough. Enforcement matters tremendously, as other metros in the country testify. Although both Mumbai and Bengaluru mandate the wearing of helmets by all on two-wheelers, riders or those riding pillion, they still register a substantial number of fatalities by those who fail to take the precaution.
“In Karnataka nearly 9,000 were killed, while in Bengaluru, about 1,100 persons lost their lives in 2007 [to road crashes],” a study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences found in a paper aimed at increasing the usage of helmets. “Among the various road user categories, two-wheeler riders and pillions are at the highest risk of injuries. Available data indicate that nearly 30% to 40% of deaths and injuries occur within this group.”
Meanwhile, Mumbai has seen a substantial increase in helmet usage after several campaigns over the last few years to increase compliance by insisting on cutting challans for those found riding without helmets; more than 98,000 were handed out in 2012-'13.
Here, Ulhas notes, Delhi might ironically already have an edge in enforcement. “Our bechara policemen often already cut challans for women riding on two-wheelers, even though the law isn’t in place,” he said. “They’re trying to improve safety on the roads, but unfortunately, the women who get caught like this can actually turn around and sue them because as of now, no such law is on the books.”
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Last month, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi cleared a transport department proposal to make it mandatory for women on two-wheelers to wear helmets. The department has now written to the Election Commission asking if it can notify the changes to the law right away. If things go right, the changes might finally happen this week — but that’s a big if.
“We have been pushing this for so long, that I won’t believe it till I see it,” said filmmaker Ulhas PR, who has been at the forefront of the effort to amend the law. “If you look at all the newspaper clippings over the last couple of years, you will see I keep saying that we expect something to happen this week. So now I’m just going to wait until it happens, but I am optimistic.”
Two years ago, when Ulhas filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court, the government — then run by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit — said it would make the requisite changes to the laws. But the next day, Dikshit put the brakes on the move.
Since then, the government has dithered, sometimes appearing to finally take the plunge and at other times asking the court for more time. Meanwhile, lives have literally been lost because of the inaction.
According to to Delhi Traffic Police, 63 women were killed on the capital’s roads last year because they weren’t wearing helmets. The Indian Head Injury Foundation’s data found that 76% of the victims classified as “severely injured” in India in 2013 suffered from head injuries.
The fatalities and injuries are even more jarring because there is very little real opposition to the move other than inconvenience and messy hair. A quick on-the-streets survey done by the Times of India found as much, with women mostly complaining about helmets not fitting or the way they look.
The one exception in this case is the Sikh community. Former CM Dikshit used to explain her decision not to amend the rule as a way of respecting the “sentiments of a religious community”, by which she means Sikhs. As soon as the Lieutenant Governor cleared the transport department’s proposal to amend the rules, the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Managing Committee wrote a letter asking him not to pass the order. But the current rules already provide an exemption to Sikh men wearing a turban, and it would be easy to add in similar language so that Amritdhari Sikh women, who also wear turbans, aren’t required to wear helmets.
“They count for barely 10% of the women on the roads, at the highest estimate,” Ulhas said. “And we have no problem with leaving them exempt, just as Sikh men are given leeway. Why endanger the rest?”
Ulhas likes to compare the situation to the case of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman who died of organ failure after Ireland’s orthodox Catholic laws didn’t allow her to get an abortion that might have saved her.
“On the same day that Savita died, a woman named Nita died in Delhi because she wasn’t wearing a helmet,” Ulhas said. “Within a year in Ireland, they had changed the law, despite the religious sentiments there. Here, where we are even saying give an exemption to the Sikhs, we still haven’t changed things.”
If the notification finally comes through, simply having changed the law won’t be enough. Enforcement matters tremendously, as other metros in the country testify. Although both Mumbai and Bengaluru mandate the wearing of helmets by all on two-wheelers, riders or those riding pillion, they still register a substantial number of fatalities by those who fail to take the precaution.
“In Karnataka nearly 9,000 were killed, while in Bengaluru, about 1,100 persons lost their lives in 2007 [to road crashes],” a study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences found in a paper aimed at increasing the usage of helmets. “Among the various road user categories, two-wheeler riders and pillions are at the highest risk of injuries. Available data indicate that nearly 30% to 40% of deaths and injuries occur within this group.”
Meanwhile, Mumbai has seen a substantial increase in helmet usage after several campaigns over the last few years to increase compliance by insisting on cutting challans for those found riding without helmets; more than 98,000 were handed out in 2012-'13.
Here, Ulhas notes, Delhi might ironically already have an edge in enforcement. “Our bechara policemen often already cut challans for women riding on two-wheelers, even though the law isn’t in place,” he said. “They’re trying to improve safety on the roads, but unfortunately, the women who get caught like this can actually turn around and sue them because as of now, no such law is on the books.”
